Section 14-A. Rate of interest; banking board to adopt regulations

1. The
  maximum rate of interest provided for in section 5-501  of  the  general
  obligations law shall be sixteen per centum per annum.
    2.  The  rate  of  interest  as so prescribed under this section shall
  include as interest any and all amounts paid  or  payable,  directly  or
  indirectly,  by  any  person,  to  or  for  the account of the lender in
  consideration for the making of a loan or forbearance as defined by  the
  banking board pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
    3.  The  banking board shall have the power, by a three-fifths vote of
  all its members, to adopt such regulations as it shall deem necessary or
  proper to implement the provisions of this section.  The  banking  board
  shall  make  available  to  the public copies of all regulations adopted
  pursuant to this section.
    4. Such regulations  as  shall  have  been  adopted  pursuant  to  the
  provisions  of  this  chapter  and  in  effect  immediately prior to the
  effective date of this section, shall continue in effect until such time
  as new regulations shall have been adopted  by  the  banking  board  and
  shall become effective.
    5.  Whenever  reference  is  made in this chapter or in any other law,
  contract or document to  the  rate  of  interest  prescribed  or  to  be
  prescribed  by  the banking board or the superintendent pursuant to this
  section or any former section fourteen-a of this chapter, such reference
  shall be deemed a reference  to  the  rate  of  interest  prescribed  in
  subdivision one of this section.
    6. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision five of this section,
  the  rate  of  interest  charged,  taken  or  received  on  any  loan or
  forbearance, which would have otherwise been subject to  the  provisions
  of  former  section  fourteen-a  of  this  chapter, made or entered into
  between the effective  date  of  this  section  and  the  first  day  of
  February, nineteen hundred eighty-one pursuant to a commitment which was
  made or entered into prior to the effective date of United States Public
  Law 96-161 and which provides for interest at the prevailing rate at the
  time  of closing shall not exceed the rate of eleven and one-quarter per
  centum per annum.
    7. Nothing contained in this section nor in  any  other  provision  of
  this  act  whereunder  this section is added to the banking law shall be
  deemed to prohibit the charging of interest at  the  rates  provided  or
  permitted  by United States Public Laws 96-161, 96-221 and 96-399, where
  applicable.